


Dark Heart, Darker Intent

by Underblogger



Category: Fairy Tail
Genre: Abuse, Bondage, Emotional Abuse, Evil, F/M, Love, Magic, Manipulation, Physical Abuse, Rape, Smut, Violence
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-03-22
Updated: 2016-04-03
Packaged: 2018-05-28 09:22:21
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 3
Words: 4,872
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6323797
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Underblogger/pseuds/Underblogger
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After you meet Zeref one night, your life takes a turn. You're special, different, in ways that you didn't know - and he's determined to exploit them for himself. Vowing to teach you the ways of his magic, he sweeps you away into a world you never knew - a world of dark magic, and darker intent.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. A Late Night Run

**Author's Note:**

> WARNING: This story will contain mature themes like rape, abuse and violence. If you are triggered by such things, please take caution when reading.

"Bye, I'll be back in a bit!" You called to your parents as you left the house. Workout gear on, you shut your front door and started walking to warm up. Lately, you hadn't had much time to do any exercise, so you'd decided some light running probably wouldn't hurt. You lived in a little village a few miles out from Magnolia, but since it was so small it didn't take you long to have walked through the whole village and into the surrounding forest. Even though it was getting a little dark, it didn't bother you - you knew this area like the back of your hand.

You broke a light sweat as you started to jog. Even though you didn't get out much, it felt good to be proactive about your health and the crisp evening air was very refreshing. As a villager, your life was pretty simply. Your parents homeschooled you, and when you were older you were hoping to take over their little shop on the main street. Since you lived in such a small community, nobody you knew could do magic, or even cared about it much. It simply wasn't part of your daily routine. You picked up your pace a little, and started to keep a steady rhythm. After a few minutes, you stopped in a clearing for a short break. Panting, you looked around a little and realised it was pretty dark and without a jumper, you were getting pretty cold. It was probably time to turn back. However, as you did so, you noticed a dark shape a few meters away.

In the shadows ahead of you stood someone with black hair in robes, facing away from you. From what you could see, he had floppy black hair - some of which stood straight upwards in an unruly tuft - and though you reckoned he was probably about your age, he was half a foot taller than you. Nervousness gathered in your gut - people didn't often come this far out of the village like you did, and you'd never seen this guy before. As you froze, watching the person, you heard a small squeak, before the figure dropped to his knees.

"Please," A male voice urged, "Please leave me. Leave me alone!" A small squeak rang through the forest again, and the boy in robes clutched his head, curling over. You couldn't help but watch, as he buckled to the floor, strained groans rumbling from his crumpled form. "Leave, this is your last chance!"

As soon as the words left his mouth, black smoke exploded out of him. It was thick and smoggy, and you could barely breathe as it clouded your senses briefly, rendering you unable to move. You cried out in panic, but found yourself stuck in place. Fear froze you to the core. In a few seconds the smoke cleared again, the blast was gone, and you looked around. To your horror, several dead birds lay at your feet. When you looked over to where the boy was, you realised he was stood cradling the dead body of a squirrel, but was turning to face you.

"You..." He slowly said, his voice incredulous. "You're not... dead? Have you been stood there the whole time?" He asked. Confusion furrowed your brows.

"Dead? Uh, clearly not." You replied, startled. You slowly looked around the tiny, feathered bodies at your feet. "What the hell was that? What did you just do?" The boy ahead of you continued to look as shocked as you felt, as he took a few steps towards you. The nervousness you felt before reappeared when you wondered if he was a wizard - if he attacked, you couldn't defend yourself against him.

"You're not dead. That was _death predation,_ and you're not dead." He mumbled, under his breath. He placed the body back on the floor, before pointing at your feet. "Were you there? Stood right there?"

"Uh..." You looked around. You hadn't moved since he collapsed to his knees. "Yeah. I was stood here. What's going on?" At your reply, the boy looked even more confused.

"But that's well in range. You should be dead. Why aren't you dead?" He questioned, biting his thumb slightly. His questions only struck more fear into your heart. _Should you be running from this guy?_

"Look, I don't know what's going on but - " You began, before he cut you off.

"Come here." He beckoned, gesturing to stand next to him with a sweep of his hand. You slowly walked over, till you were stood within breathing distance, and he swallowed hard.

"Okay, I'm going to do something now." He announced, before taking a deep breath. After a second's pause, he leant down as grasped your hand firmly. After a second of intently staring at the physical contact, he gasped loudly and pulled you even closer to him. You had to place a hand on his chest just to not fall into him.

"What's going on?"

"This is amazing!"

"What the fuck are you doing, dude?"

"Physical contact, and you're not dead!"

"Hey, what the fuck does that _mean_?"

"You're still alive, and I'm touching you! I'm touching you..."

"Hey, _creep_." You angrily said, yanking your hand away from his and taking a step back. "I don't know what the fuck your problem is, but I'm going now. Weirdo." You moved to step around him, fully ready to run back home, when he grabbed your arm.

"You're not going anywhere yet, because I'm not done with you." He growled, his grip surprisingly strong. Now you were really scared.

"Let go of me, please." Your voice shook more than you wanted it too, and he smirked down at you. His eyes started to turn red as he stared down at you.

"You're not going anywhere..." He thoughtfully repeated. You struggled, trying to pull yourself away, but he simply grabbed you with both hands and tugged you closer to him. As you looked down at his feet, you could feel his hot breath hit the top of your head. "Do you know any magic, girl?"

You only shook your head. He was too strong for you to escape, and judging by his words he was clearly a dangerous person. Maybe if you complied for one conversation, he would eventually leave you alone.

"I see..." He mused. Gently, he lifted your chin with one hand to force you to look up at him. When you did, his eyes had gone back to normal and he appeared calm. "I have a dreadful curse. My curse means that any who come close to me, die. The spell you just saw should've killed you. In fact, any physical contact with me should kill you." He explained, looking into your eyes.

You couldn't think of anything to say back to him. You barely knew about anything magical, but you'd certainly never heard of magic like that. The boy in front of you seemed to think for another few seconds, before he nodded to himself and turned away. Grabbing your hand, he dragged you along with him as he began to walk towards one of the mountains nearby.

"My name is Zeref, although I'm not sure that's necessary information for you. What is yours?" He asked. You could only stutter your name quietly, and he laughed to himself gently. "You sound scared. If you want to know where we're going, we're going to my home."

"I... I want to go to my own home. My parents are probably wondering where I am." You sheepishly replied. No matter how hard you tried, you couldn't escape Zeref's tight grip on your hand, forcing you to walk along with him. The robed boy only chuckled darkly in response.

"This will be your home now. You're going to be my little apprentice. I'm going to teach you magic."


	2. His Home

After walking around 2 miles to the foot of the mountain, Zeref stopped in front of a tree. Slowly, he used his spare hand to brush aside the branches that hung in front of the two of you. As he parted them, you realised that behind that was a small opening to a cave. Wordlessly, he led you inside.

Once in the cave, you realised you had misjudged it. The main cavern was much larger than the doorway led you to believe, and it probably reached as high as the roof of your house. Several tunnels led away from the main space, and you could see torches and candles burning in these empty passageways. Clearly, Zeref had been living here for some time.

With a click of his fingers, several candles and wall-mounted torches lit up in brilliant flames, illuminating the main cavern. It was surprisingly warm, and around the room there were discarded clothes, remnants of food, and old daggers and weapons scattered about. In a moment of revelation, you knew you had to grab a dagger. He didn't relinquish his grip however, and dragged you around to face him.

"So, ground rules. Don't touch anything unless permitted to. Don't eat anything unless permitted to. Don't leave unless... well, you know. You'll be sleeping through here." He pointed out one of the caverns that led away from the main cave, the furthest to the left, and tossed you a pile of sheets and blankets from the ground. "This tunnel leads to a dead end, don't bother going all the way down there." His voice was cold, and lacked any emotion at all. It was almost as if this whole ordeal was a chore for him.

"Look, I really think I should be going - "

"You're not going to 'be going' anywhere. Do I _have_ to keep repeating that to you?"

"No, you don't." You replied bravely, before adrenaline started coursing through you. In a flash, you pulled away from his grip, dropped the sheets and ran across the room. In one sweeping motion, you grabbed a small, discarded dagger and swivelled round to face him. You were surprised to find he was stood right in front of you, but forced yourself to stay focused. You had to get away.

Without thinking, you plunged the short knife harshly into his stomach and broke into a run. He grabbed you by wrapping an arm around your waist from behind, pulling you backwards towards him. You felt a little sick as you felt the handle of the knife - still in his stomach - brushed against the right side of your waist. He spun you to face him.

Slowly, he pulled the knife out of his stomach and dropped it to the floor. Whilst some blood had leeched onto the white toga wrapped around him, it hadn't spread nearly as much as you thought it would. His face only held a grimace of anger and determination - not the expression of someone about to die from a stab wound.

"You shouldn't have done that." He growled, before slapping you harshly around the face. You felt the pain blossom from where he'd hit you, and you struggled not to cry out. Biting your lip to hold tears back, you turned back to face him and punched him as hard as you could in the face. He seemed completely unperturbed, and slapped you again. This time when you looked back up at him, his eyes were glowing bright red. However, you had no time whatsoever to digest this as he threw you to the floor and kicked you hard in the back.

"It doesn't matter how much you fight me. It doesn't matter if you _stab me_. I'm immortal, I'm over 400 years old, and quite frankly you're nothing more than dirt on my shoe." He stated, his voice cold and seething. Clearly, he wasn't very good at holding his temper, and you'd done all the right things to make him angry. A small sob left your lips, the tears starting to roll down your face as fear gripped you.

"Let me _GO_!" You cried, not daring to look back up at him. Sprawled on the floor, you barely dared to breathe as the coldness of the rock below you cooled the burning pain on your cheek. Behind you, you heard Zeref bend down.

"I'm not going to say it again. You are _not_ leaving here." He said, before grabbing your right arm and twisting it painfully behind your back. "Look at this. I've not even used magic and you're completely helpless." He scolded. Pain shot through you, causing you to scream loudly. It felt like your arm was going to break in his grasp.

"Stop screaming." Zeref said, sounding almost bored. You couldn't help it, and found yourself unable to stop crying as he continued to twist your arm behind you. Suddenly, he shook you violently - by your twisted arm - and you forced yourself into silence.

"There. See? It wasn't that hard." He said behind you. Every thought in your head was concentrating on not making a sound, no matter the amount of pain you were in right now. After a second, he let go and seemed to step away. You lay, still shaking, on the floor. Your bones ached and felt extremely heavy - it was almost like all of your energy had been expended in that one fight. "Can you get up?" His voice seemed calm again. You turned to look at him, and he regarded you for a short second before extending a hand towards you.

You looked at his hand, before slowly taking it and letting him help you up. Once you were stood, he stared at his hand holding yours, as if it was the first time he'd touched you all over again. It was as if he'd completely forgotten about the fight.

"It truly is amazing. Physical touch, after all this time..." He mused, not looking at you. After a second, he looked back at your stricken face, contorted with fear. "And what a pretty little thing, too. You live in the village nearby, don't you? I think I've actually seen you around these parts before." You nodded, carefully.

"I go... I go running through the forest sometimes." You explained, gesturing to yourself. He nodded, looking at your running clothes, before appearing to realise something and looking at his own blood-stained toga.

"Oh! I'm still covered in blood." He said flippantly. He let go of you a took a few steps away, before starting to abruptly strip down. Shocked, you turned around to give him privacy, but he hadn't looked like he cared if you saw. As you turned, you caught a flash of his naked torso and realised that it was completely clear of any marks - it looked like you hadn't stabbed him at all. _Who was this guy, or more importantly, WHAT was he?_

After what could have only been a minute, you heard him sigh contentedly and turned around to see that he'd changed clothes quickly. His usual high-collared robe hung open, underneath which he wore a loose white, linen shirt and had put on simple black trousers. It was strange to see some of his chest through the loose drawstrings towards the top of his shirt.

"We may as well begin now, unless you feel like trying to run away again?" He mocked, an amused smile tugging at his lips. You wished you were brave enough - or dumb enough - to punch him again.

"Begin what, learning magic?" You asked, incredulously. _After being attacked, this guy was just ready to continue as if nothing just happened?_

"Actually," He said, walking towards you. "There's something I want to do first." You held your breath nervously at his words, unsure of what to expect.

"What is it?" You asked, before regretting asking at all.

"I'm sure you've heard of wizard guilds. Some say you aren't truly a wizard until you join a guild."

"I have heard of them. What about them?"

"Well, in order to become a proper little wizard, you may need to join a guild."

"You're... making me join a wizard guild?"

He laughed at your question. The dark undertone made ice shoot through your body.

"No. We're creating our own."

As soon as he spoke, he picked up the dagger you'd stabbed him with earlier, and walked threateningly towards you. He held it up, making you realise in horror that your running tank top didn't cover enough skin to protect you from whatever he was about to do.

In a swift motion, he grabbed your left arm and plunged the knife into your skin, making you scream loudly. Pain seared through your arm and up to your shoulder, making you want to throw up. He continued to run the knife along your upper arm as you screamed. You could feel the warm, thick blood run down your arm and drip of the ends of your fingertips. When your knees buckled under you and you started to fall, he simply supported you with one hand and continued his knife work with the other. After what seemed like forever in agony, he finished what he was doing, he dropped the knife to the floor and regarded whatever he'd done. Part of you was too afraid to look.

"Aren't you going to look at it?" He asked, mocking a hurt tone. When you didn't move, he shook you violently, causing the pain to shoot back through your arm.

Slowly, you turned to see what he'd done. Sickness filled your stomach as you realised he'd carved an intricate 'Z' onto your upper left arm, complete with serifs and a fancy strike through the centre. The wound looked deep, and bled openly.

"What the fuck...?" You muttered, feeling bile rise in your throat. You gagged suddenly, and had to breathe hard to avoid throwing up on your own shoes. Leaning over you, Zeref didn't seem to care about your suffering.

"I guess we've got our own little guild now. You can call me Master." He smirked. Anger built up within you like wild fire.

"I'll call you nothing, you sick _fuck_." You spat. Abruptly, he dropped his arms from around you and your weak knees made you fall to the floor. As he looked down at you, he snorted with laughter and looked you right in the eye.

"You _will_ call me Master."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading! I hope you enjoyed it, do feel free to leave a comment and tell me what you thought!


	3. Sleep and Training

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yo! It's been a while since the last update. Whilst this story gains it's footing, the uploads may be a little sporadic, but I promise I'll try harder.

You lay, amongst a dozen sheets and blankets, and struggled to get to sleep. The mixture of fear and anger you were feeling - as well as left over adrenaline from the fight and the pain ringing out from your arm - kept you wide awake as you stared at the dimly-lit tunnel ceiling. In the main cavern a few meters away, Zeref was writing something by candlelight. You didn't dare talk to him, but you wished you were warmer. The coldness of the rock had seeped into your bones and no amount of blankets could warm you up - especially as you had no pyjamas, so you were simply dressed in your sports bra and panties. Luckily, the blood from earlier had simply run down your arm and onto the floor, missing your clothes. By now, it had started to dry into a thick brown crust along your forearm and wrist.

Silence hung in the air, but your mind was alive and shouting. Shouting at you to get up, to try and fight him again, to run away. Part of you wanted to just run all the way down the tunnel, but that would mean running away from the only source of light. Quietly, the gentle scratches of Zeref's writing penetrated the stillness.

You were so _cold_. No other thought ran through your head other than escaping and getting warm. After a while, you couldn't stop yourself, and your teeth started to chatter. You were scared of annoying Zeref, but you couldn't help shaking and shivering in the freezing tunnel. After a few minutes of your teeth chattering, you heard Zeref shuffle a little in the next room.

"Is that... your teeth chattering?" He slowly asked.

"Um, yeah. I'm kind of cold." You called back carefully, trying not to sound ungrateful.

"Figures." He curtly said. A few moments of further silence went by, before you heard shuffling again.

Suddenly, he appeared at the mouth of the tunnel. You looked up at him, and he smiled gently.

"Come on, come into the main cavern with me." He offered, holding his hand out to help you up. You took it, and cautiously made sure your blankets stayed gathered around you as you both padded bare foot to the centre of the cavern. Quickly, Zeref gathered a pile of sticks from just by the cavern doorway, before arranging them in a pile in the middle of the room. With a click of his fingers, he lit a fire, and sat you down beside it with him.

"Just go to sleep." He calmly said.

"Huh?" You asked, incredulous. In reply, he gently placed your head in his lap, and you laid down on your side compliantly.

Deciding not to question it, you gratefully took in the heat of the fire as you closed your eyes. After all the stress of the night, you managed a small yawn. The last you remember, before falling asleep, was the triumph of knowing you were finally tired.

-

You woke up with the morning sun streaming through the leaves that covered the entrance to the cave. Panic filled you briefly, before you realised where you were and the gut feeling of anxiety and fear resumed once more. In front of you was a small pile of ashes where the sun had been, and you realised your head was still resting on Zeref, who had fallen asleep laying on his back with his legs cross. You felt vaguely groggy, and the weirdness of the situation didn't quite hit you straight away.

As you tried to move, you felt a sharp strike of pain in your left arm, and remembered what Zeref had done to your arm. Gently, you lifted your head and looked at him. He mumbled slightly, before slowly opening his eyes. You sat up as you watched, a little curious, as he looked around the cavern. It took him all of three seconds to fix his eyes on you, and a big grin spread across his face.

"I'm glad you're here." He said, sounding satisfied. You loathed him. You barely had anything to say in response that wasn't loud screaming, so you kept your mouth shut as he propped himself up on his elbows and looked up at you. "It's time to get to work."

"Forgive me, but I'm thirsty. And, actually, hungry too." You nervously said, realising the grumbling in your stomach. Slowly, Zeref nodded and lazily dragged himself over to the wall of the cavern behind him. Out of a bundle of cloth, he grabbed a hunk of bread and threw it to you.

"We'll drink water from a stream nearby. You'll have to eat as we walk." He said, as you remembered his rule about eating. You almost wished that he hadn't just shown you where he kept his food, so you wouldn't be tempted by it in the future.

After you'd changed back into yesterday's clothes, Zeref gestured it was time to leave the cavern. As you walked, he explained how ethernanos worked in conjunction with magic energy, and the various ways magic could be used. It was clear from his explanation that you'd never memorise every single type of magic that there was, but apparently you would only need to worry about the type he used anyway - black magic. Zeref was adamant that he used the most powerful type of magic - and that since you'd been unaffected by his 'Death Predation' spell yesterday, you would be able to use it too. You were less sure than he was. It all sounded very complicated.

"Just relax, and concentrate on your body." He said, after sitting on the grass with you. "Meditation allows you to gather ethernanos faster than any other activity."

It was very hard to simply sit still for ages. Every so often, you would hear a bird chirp, or the wind would blow especially hard in the trees, and you'd lose all concentration. It especially didn't help that every time you opened your eyes, Zeref would be staring intently at you.

After what felt like half an hour, but was probably only 5 minutes, you opened your eyes and huffed loudly.

"I can't just sit here doing nothing. How on Earth do _children_ manage to do that when they're learning?" You grumbled. Zeref raised a delicate eyebrow at you.

"I did. It takes dedication." He simply replied. It was frustrating to get such a vague answer from him, and you couldn't help getting annoyed at him.

"Well it's ridiculous. I can't do it. This is _boring_!" You continued. Zeref had no reaction, and simply closed his eyes. It only infuriated you more.

"Hey!" You shouted. He still didn't react. "Don't ignore me!"

"Shush." He quietly said, not opening his eyes. You felt like you were going to explode. All thoughts about making him mad went completely out of the window.

"You don't need to be so rude! Surely there's another way to do this? I can't believe that this is really the way to learn magic, it's just so dull! Do you even know what you're doing?" You furiously grilled him. You waited a few seconds for him to reply, but he didn't even react to what you'd said.

" _LISTEN TO ME!_ " You yelled, reaching forwards to grab his shoulder and shake him. However, the second you made contact with him, black smoke exploded out of you.

The thick smog burst in all directions around the two of you, and you could feel every drop of your anger being sucked out of you as the black smoke kept coming. It felt like all of your energy was being sucked out of you in one enraged scream. You couldn't think, you couldn't breathe, and you couldn't control the explosion you'd caused. In the back of your head, a small voice pointed out how similar this was to _'Death Predation'_ , but you couldn't concentrate of that when you were billowing smoke like a freshly put-out flame. It was all over within a few seconds and the smoke dissipated as quickly as it had appeared. You collapsed forwards to the floor instantly, gasping for breath, and started to analyse your surroundings.

All the trees in the area were bare and blackened, the leaves nowhere to be seen. No birds sang in the sky, and no squirrels inhabited the branches. In front of you, Zeref hadn't moved, and was still cross-legged with his eyes tightly shut. You began to panic. _What had you just done? How had you done that?_ It took a few seconds for the most horrifying thought to dawn on you. _Did I just kill everything around me, like Zeref does?_

"Zeref? I mean, uh, Master?" You quickly corrected yourself, trying to grab his attention. Slowly, he opened his eyes and looked at you.

"That... I didn't think that would work. This is better than I expected." He smiled, triumphantly. "Clearly, anger triggers that for you, but I wonder if it would work for any extreme emotion...? Plus, if I can get you riled up _that easily_ , clearly you'll be able to do that in a battle, too. Did that cost you any energy?" He eagerly questioned, cutting off his own ramble.

"I'm exhausted." You said tiredly, barely able to get up off the floor. Zeref nodded.

"That's to be expected, especially as that was your first spell. _I'm_ not dead, but I wonder how the surrounding area has been affected?" He continued muttering to himself, before looking around. He got up, briefly disappearing from your field of vision before returning with a small bird in his hand. Tears filled your eyes. You didn't want to hear about how you'd killed innocent wildlife.

"It's... not dead." He said, incredulity obvious in his voice. A seed of hope began to grow in your stomach.

"I didn't kill it?" You happily asked. Zeref shook his head.

"It's very badly injured, but it's not dead. How interesting." Zeref thoughtfully said, as he laid the bird gently on the ground. He took a second to process this, before looking back at you.

"Do you know what this means? This means I can teach you my magic. I don't even know how that's possible, but... you just created that smoke." He continued talking, but you didn't have the energy to respond to him. It felt like you'd just run 10 miles, or that you hadn't slept in a week, and you'd only done one attack. It took a good few minutes of breathless panting for you to be able to get any words out at all.

"Is every attack that tiring?" You gasped.

"No. But then again, that wasn't just any attack." He said, thoughtfully. After a few seconds, he moved over to you and pulled you into standing. Your legs shook under your own weight, but he didn't seem to notice.

"Whilst your magic energy replenishes, let's try some hand-to-hand combat."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading, please tell me your thoughts!
> 
> The more I write this, the more excited I get about what I have in store...!

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading! Feel free to leave a comment below and tell me what you thought!


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